


Choshuu no Hitokiri

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Echoes: A Peacemaker Kurogane/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover [5]
Category: Peacemaker Kurogane, Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Author Loves Writing the Meiji Revolution, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-19
Updated: 2012-01-19
Packaged: 2017-12-28 06:29:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The infamous Hitokiri Battousai has not been seen in Kyoto since the Ikedaya Incident, but the peace that has fallen around the capital is shattered by a series of brutal killings that has all patrol units worried.  With his friends away from Kyoto, it is up to Shinomori Aoshi to find out who exactly is this new assassin before the assassin kills any more people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choshuu no Hitokiri

**Author's Note:**

> First Publishing: January 2012. All copyrights apply to the appropriate parties and no profit is being made from this fanwork.

**Part 3: Choshuu no Hitokiri**

_Year: Spring 1865_

 

“Who could have done this?”

Saitou carefully turned the dead man over to see that the fatal blow had come from a head to sternum slice, spilling the man's innards out onto the sakura-covered ground. He dropped his hand from the body but did not get up from his crouch on the blood-soaked ground. Instead, he stayed there, thinking, as he carefully looked at the other dead bodies of the patrol unit who had been mercilessly slaughtered.

“No sighting of the Hitokiri Battousai for several months now...it can't be him, can it?” one of the men that had accompanied him fearfully whispered.

“No,” he heard Okita, who was crouched next to another body near the foot of the stairs that would take a passerby up the hilly road, say. “These men were killed in a different fashion than what the Battousai had killed in.”

Saitou mentally nodded – so Okita had also noticed the difference in sheer brutality in how these patrolmen were killed. Whereas he would classify the Battousai's lethality as elegant but efficient, the way these men were killed was akin to animalistic. However, the men were right; the Battousai had not been sighted around Kyoto since the incident at Ikedaya, but neither have Choshuu rebels. His own personal mantra: aku, soku, zan, was telling him that there was more to this killing...perhaps a new Choshuu assassin? He could not be sure, and there were currently too many variables to come to conclusions.

* * *

The next morning brought the usual calm and happiness to the populace of Kyoto as they enjoyed yet another day of the sight of the city covered in light pink cherry blossoms. No one was the wiser at the bloody mess that had been made to several different patrol units of Kyoto, painstakingly cleaned by responding patrol units before even the first farmers awoke. Children and families were sitting or walking on the wayside, enjoying the blossoms while vendors were selling their spring-time wares at the discounts that the people of Kyoto expected every year.

Despite the report he had acquired late last night from the First and Third patrol units who had gone out in response to the alert, Aoshi could not help but enjoy the sense of peace that seemed to saturate the area. It could have been a number of factors, including the silently falling blossoms, or the sounds of trickling of the water from one of the irrigation channels that he was walking parallel to, or the fact that everyone just seemed to smile a lot more during these weeks than the rest of the year.

He readjusted the small sack on his back that was full of straw on the bottom and with a small amount of vegetables on the top, giving it the disguise that he was carrying a sack of vegetables. The meager, almost thread-bare farmer's pants and shirt he wore didn't do much to hide any weapons he was carrying, but for this particular disguise, he only carried one of his short blades, strapped to his body, with the bump hidden where his vegetable sack sat against his back.

He was out here only to observe and listen, not engage in a fight, for with Susumu gone for a few weeks to begin his training as a doctor, Aya gone to the south on an assignment that would not bring her back until summer, and Kai currently on his way to Edo to deliver reports too sensitive for a hawk to carry, he was the only shinobi left available to the Shinsengumi for this duty. Of course, Aoshi knew that Commander Kondou could have requested more help from the Kyoto Oniwabanshuu members, but rumor had it that they were investigating something that took up all of their attention.

As he approached the market streets, the crowd around him got thicker and he heard many voices of vendors or people trying to haggle prices. It took him a while of just plodding slowly through the market, pretending that the sack on his back was quite heavy before he heard something that seemed to be relevant to last night's events.

“ _Katsura-san's been missing since that night – no one's seen him in a while. How can you be sure that he's not dead?_ ”

“ _Obviously you didn't hear of what happened last night, my friend. No one else would be that crazy after what happened to hire an assassin and have him kill five patrol units!_ ”

“ _Five?!_ ”

“ _Yeah, and he didn't get caught either! This guy is almost as good as the previous one...that red-headed kid_.”

“ _But why would Katsura-san do that? Aren't we supposed to be laying low?_ ”

“ _He could be testing the waters...seeing how everyone reacts. Anyhow, I need to be going before some patrol wanders by and attempts to arrest us for just talking. My wife is going to be wanting this tofu before it gets spoiled too. I'll make an excuse tonight and we'll go to Shimabara later, all right, my friend?_ ”

The two samurai dressed in drab-looking clothes continued to mumble, their voices getting softer, but Aoshi had already spotted them and as the two started to walk away, Aoshi followed at a discreet distance. When the two split, he decided to bring back his information instead of following either of the two men. The way the two carried themselves, he knew that they would not provide anymore information – at least not until possibly more happened.

It was time to bring back one vital information: the rebels had a new assassin. However, it opened up another question: what happened to the previous assassin?

* * *

“ _Its a day to remember. Whatever happens from now...I pray that it will_ mean _something.”_

_No!_

The whisper-soft sound of a blade being quickly drawn and stabbed into flesh with a squelching sound continued to echo like a ghostly taunt in his mind. Okita squeezed his eyes shut against the image of his dear friend with a blade through the back, but the image of his own blade through Yamanami's back continued to hound him. He barely felt himself shake a bit, barely felt the pain of his knuckles being stretched as his hands wrapped tighter and tighter around the bokken he was holding.

Suddenly, the depressing memories, the heavy guilt that weighed upon him at what he had done, everything seemed to wash away with a sudden torrent of a presence that felt _dangerous_.

Okita snapped his eyes open and saw Saitou standing in front of him, a bokken held at the ready in his hands, with the distance between them equal in spacing. It was Saitou who had exuded the dangerous-feeling presence, a warrior's presence, and Okita did not miss the challenging smirk on the captain's face.

Wordlessly, he returned the challenge and expanded his own presence until it matched Saitou's. However, unlike the last time he and Saitou had done this, they had been holding live swords...this time, it was bokken, which meant that sparring was an option.

Not a second later, he sprang at Saitou, just as the man charged at him. Their simultaneous _ki-ai_ thundered through the empty training hall.

* * *

Aoshi placed the sack down near the kitchens and made his way to the well. He drew up the water and splashed it over his face, letting the spring breeze help cool his wet face.

“Hey, you're back!” he heard Tetsu say from behind him as he turned and saw the young page standing near him, holding out a small cloth. Taking the cloth, he wiped the water off but did not hand the cloth back. He would probably need it for later.

“Thanks,” he said.

“No problem,” Tetsu answered. “You're probably wanting to report to the _fukuchou_ , right? Just letting you know that he's been a bit tetchy and irritated all day now, even more so that usual.”

“Oh,” Aoshi answered, raising his eyebrows slightly.

“Oy, don't look at me like that, Aoshi!” the young page defensively said. “I didn't have anything to do with it!”

“Well, thanks for the information,” he said, keeping his opinions to himself.

“I'm hoping you have good news for him...I don't want to serve him tea right now, considering how bad of a mood he's in.”

“I have news, but I don't know if its going to be good or not,” he truthfully said, shrugging a bit. “You might want to brace yourself.”

He heard Tetsu loudly sigh, his shoulders drooping a bit as he realized that it was most likely hopeless that even the news that Aoshi brought back would bring the vice-commander out of his bad mood. The echoes of a rather loud _ki-ai_ coming from what he had assumed to be empty training hall caused both him and Tetsu to look towards it. They were not the only ones startled by the sound as a few other members of the Shinsengumi out and about also stopped what they were doing and stared at the training hall.

Curiosity got the better of both of them, along with a few others as they approached the hall, hearing the _clack_ of wooden swords being hit against each other. It was Tetsu who was the loudest in his exclamation at what exactly he and the others were seeing happening in the training hall. Aoshi himself was also fairly impressed at the fact that two swordsmen of the highest caliber, Okita Souji and Saitou Hajime, were sparring against each other. Neither men had armor on, and it looked like they were not just sparring for fun.

Both men were lightning-fast on their feet, using their own sword styles to their advantage, and Aoshi found that he could only follow five, maybe six moves before the rest got lost in the blur of the two sparring that moved like a fresh fire through dry wood. However, as much as he wanted to stay and see the fight through, he knew that he had to go report to the vice-commander.

Reluctantly, he tore himself away and headed towards the vice-commander's room. When he got there, he knelt by the open door, visible to Hijikata and a moment later, the vice-commander said, “Enter.”

Entering and sitting in seize before the vice-commander, he presented his report, saying, “Sir, what I have heard around the city is that the rebel samurai have been laying low or have evacuated the city. Katsura Kogoro still has not been sighted by any since the incident at Ikedaya and those that remain are getting doubtful that he is still alive. However, there is a new assassin being employed by the rebels in the city. At least one of those I had heard compared the new assassin to the Hitokiri Battousai.”

He looked up to see the vice-commander frowning but didn't dare ask what was going through his thoughts. He respected the vice-commander and truly wanted to be as strong as him, but he had no right as a shinobi to even consider asking anything, much less offer his advice.

“Spring is here, so they must be waking up from their winter sleep,” he heard Hijikata mutter to himself. In a more direct tone to Aoshi, Hijikata said, “I need you to go around Shimabara tonight and listen in.”

“Yes, sir,” he said.

“Also, Shinomori,” the vice-commander said, stopping him from getting up, “What is that noise?”

“Saitou-san and Okita-san are sparring against each other, sir,” he answered, seeing the nod that the vice-commander gave and excused himself from his presence.

* * *

In his own opinion, Aoshi thought that Shimabara was a den of vipers that had to be tread more carefully than open combat – not because of the amount of drunken revelry that came with beautiful women and sake, but because of the fact that none of the women who worked in the industry could be trusted. Loose tongues flowed at all the perfumed houses of pleasure, and where there were loose tongues, there were even looser coins to pad the golden-lined pockets of the women who wielded the information. Still, it was one of the better places for him to get information, albeit, that he wasn't a patron and was merely sneaking around on the rooftops.

Fortunately for him, tonight was a moonless night, which meant that less men were going to be out and about with the women for a nighttime stroll and nighttime hanami. Crouched in the shadows near one of the windows to the houses, he carefully listened...

“ _Oh my..._ ”

Aoshi sighed in disgust to himself as he departed from this particular window, with the sounds of the man and woman in their lovemaking fading from his ears. That had been the wrong window to choose. He silently hopped from one rooftop to another and found another that was angled enough so that he was shadowed from the edge of the brightly lit street in the district. Hopefully, he chose a good window...

“ _More bad news_?”

“ _No, this time, I have received some good news_.”

“ _That's wonderful_.”

“ _If you'll excuse me for a moment, I need to pass this on_.”

He heard the shuffling of a person getting up and the _swish_ of a wooden door being opened. Quickly, he scouted out the edges of the entire building – there – he spotted a person sitting near the barrels of refuse, cleverly blended in with the ground surroundings, and barely visible from a top-view...if only he had not seen the small puff of smoke coming out that indicated that the man was smoking. Quietly, he crouched and waited for the patron to come out and sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the back door opened and light spilled out into the streets.

“ _Gah, it smells awful_ ,” he heard the patron say before the patron tossed _something_ out, something heavy, and closed the door.

He waited a moment with baited breath before seeing the cautious, careful shuffle of the person waiting near the refuse come out and gingerly pluck the item up. Aoshi leaned back from sight as the person looked around and above – by the time he looked back down, the person was already half-way down the alley. Hijikata had ordered him to Shimabara to listen in, but his gut instinct was telling him that what the man carried was important.

Stalking a target was something that Aoshi had mastered even before he had been sent out into the field, and like a cat slinking through the bamboo forest with quiet ease, he followed the man via the rooftops. As the man emerged out from the noisy area of Shimabara and to the quieter sections of the city, Aoshi decided to strike.

His kodachi blades were unsheathed quietly from their housing, and he positioned himself on the edge of the rooftop. With his eyes fully adjusted to the darkness, he waited until the man was slightly past him and pounced. Using a modified version of one of his techniques, Gokou Juuji, he sliced the man's head off without a sound and landed softly on the ground.

He flicked the blood off his blades and resheathed them again as he crouched and took a look at the headless body. Rummaging through the man's clothes, he found the object and took it out. It was a thin reed pipe that was strangely heavy. However, he pocketed it and then hefted the headless body. With the blood still gushing out, it was going to be a mess to hide the body, but fortunately, he had killed the man near some refuse barrels. Dragging the body, he dumped it behind the barrels as quietly as possible before going back for the head and dropped it into a barrel. Kicking the dusty ground, he made sure that most of the blood spots were covered and then leapt back up to the roof.

He bounded from rooftop to rooftop, light and quick on his feet for a few minutes until he was far from the killing sight. Ensuring that he was not in any direct line of sight from the ground up, he paused and pulled out the reed pipe and looked at it. It looked quite ordinary, and as he carefully felt around the outer edges, he finally thought he saw a small insert where one would put a fingernail through, as if to tap on the end of it in thought.

Carefully sticking a nail into the slot, he wiggled his finger a bit and felt something inside catch before he rolled the pipe slightly, as if letting his finger unscrew whatever was inside. Five turns later, the end of the pipe popped out and he peered inside. It was dark, and even though he could see some details, he thought he saw a thin sliver of paper along the inner wall of the pipe. If it was what he thought it was then his fingers were not thin or small enough to get the paper out.

Taking one of his throwing knives out, he carefully wiggled the tip of it into the tube and slowly loosened the paper until it came free. He put the throwing knife away and shook the pipe slightly to slide the paper out. Squinting in the darkness only illuminated by the faint lanterns of the streets and star light, he tried to read the message:

 

_Tosa, tell them that we are appreciative that Shishio Makoto was sent to us. He is a godsend after the disappearance of Katsura and the arrest of Takasugi. All of them, including those wolves of Mibu are already quaking in fear of our new assassin._

 

Aoshi could not help but curl up the edges of his lips in a grim smile. They finally had the identity of the new Choshuu assassin. He was sure that Shogunate resources would be poured, just as they had been for the Hitokiri Battousai, into fully identifying just what the assassin looked like. Shishio Makoto's days as an anonymous face in Kyoto were about to be numbered.

 

~*~*~*~


End file.
